Acquittal
by onetruefirelord
Summary: After The Cricket Game. By the time they believe her, she's already left. By the time they track her down, it's too late. Henry and Emma will have to live with the consequences.
1. Gina Miller

"Upon further review of your case, we find that the original evidence presented did not warrant a conviction. As such, this court overturns your conviction. Congratulations, Mr. Gonzalez, you are a free man."

Regina let out a huge sigh of relief as the hearing room erupted in applause. Turning to shake the hand of the man next to her, she was instead enveloped in a bear crushing hug. "Thank you, Ms. Miller," gasped the muscle-bound man through teary eyes. "Words cannot describe how much this means to me. I am forever in your debt."

"Mr. Gonzalez, the best way to repay your debt is to go home to your family," responded Regina, gently patting the large man on the back. "Make up for all the years that have been wrongfully taken away from you."

The man nodded in tearful gratitude and ran to greet his waiting wife and sons, leaving Regina to pack up her documents. 'Another happy ending,' thought Regina, suppressing the twinge of jealousy that always came with each victory.

...

" _You can pretend all you want, but we know how you are, and who you will always be," Emma gloated. Regina's heart stopped- she wanted to protest, but after using her magic, the dimwits would certainly not be receptive to hearing her side of the story. Unable to find a response to Emma's declaration, Regina chose to retreat to her father's crypt._

 _Once alone, Regina frantically considered all her options. Confronting Gold was out of the question- it was hard enough getting the slippery imp to agree to a deal, let alone getting him to confess to murder. It wouldn't accomplish anything to try and talk to Henry now: her son was in school at the moment, and the Charmings would surely catch wind from his classmates of her attempts._

 _As the minutes went by, Regina was increasingly overcome by a creeping feeling of helplessness- the Charmings had successfully maneuvered her into a situation with no good options. 'I suppose that's just another instance of my past coming back to bite me,' she rued. She truly did want to redeem herself in the eyes of her son, but every sudden movement was met with alarm and suspicion by everybody._

 _Regina checked her watch. Henry would be getting off the bus any minute now! Maybe, just maybe, she could intercept Henry before Miss Swan did. She could tell Henry her side of the story- how she was innocent, how she was trying to change.._

 _Nope. The insufferable blonde was waiting at the bus stop. Regina could only watch helplessly as Miss Swan embraced her son, watch helplessly as the hope her son had in her visibly died before her eyes. Regina could make out the words, "come on, I'll buy you an ice cream," as the pair headed off towards the direction of the diner. Determined to catch Henry alone, Regina followed them..._

...

"Gina!" greeted her assistant, a spunky law student named Linda. Regina flinched in surprise as the girl skipped down the aisle until she stood next to the brunette. "She shoots, she scores! How's my favorite miracle worker feeling after winning the longest case of her career?"

Regina shrugged. "It's just one battle in a long war, Linda. There are so many wrongfully accused still rotting away in our prisons, being separated from their-"

"Come on, Gina!" interrupted the Linda. "Let's toss away that famous Gina Miller pessimism for just one night. We're all going for drinks tonight and we really want you to come with."

"Sorry, I can't. I have... errands I need to run."

Linda sighed. Getting her boss to interact with the people volunteering for her was like pulling teeth; the imposing woman seemed reluctant to form emotional bonds with anybody. Linda could guess bits and pieces of why; on the rare occasions that she would join in for drinks, a drunken Regina would confess about how her son had renounced her very existence. Coupled with the Miller Foundation's goal of freeing people wrongly accused of crime, she had a good guess of why such a renouncement had happened.

"Okay then... see you tomorrow Gina."

On her way out, Regina was swamped by journalists looking for a statement. She obliged. "It is a terrible thing to be accused of a crime you did not commit," she started, "to be accused of a crime by those who bear you no good will and would see you fail. Mr. Gonzalez was such a man."

She continued for five more minutes, detailing the case from start to finish, holding the reporters at rapt attention. At the end, she was sure that she had gotten the Miller Foundation on the map, and walked away pleased.

Outside the courthose, someone bumped her roughly in the shoulder. Turning to shoot a glare at the offender, Regina was greeted by a veritable giant who sported an ugly scar on the right side of his face. The man opened his mouth, but instead of an apology, he said, "Pretty ladies shouldn't try to get too over their heads." Before Regina had time to process the threat, the thug had lumbered towards a well dressed man who Regina quickly recognized as Ricky Alvarez. Regina had suspected that the Alvarez crime family had framed Mr. Gonzalez; although she couldn't prove the framing, pursuing that angle had yielded evidence that proved Mr. Gonzalez innocent.

Regina debated whether to take the threat seriously; in the end, she decided against it. She wasn't scared; she had faced far worse than the Alvarez family before.

…

Regina arrived at her loft a little after seven. Kicking off her heels, she padded towards the kitchen to grab a bottle of spiked cider. Pouring a glass to the rim, she moved towards her home office, where a pile of letters awaited her.

 _Dear Ms. Miller,_

 _You probably get this a lot, but I've been wrongfully convicted of..._

 _To Whom It May Concern,_

 _I'm innocent. I've been framed by..._

 _To: Miller Foundation,_

 _I'm writing to you because I've been..._

Regina sighed. She had read through a few dozen letters, and there were still a few dozen more; dozens of cases to pass onto her volunteers, who would fact check and review each one. But with only finite resources and manpower, there was simply no way to give each case the attention it needed. Some would sit in their cells, hoping for salvation that wouldn't be able to come from her.

Sipping from her nearly empty glass, Regina wistfully remembered her own case, one where she didn't have a defender on her side.

…

 _Regina waited half an hour for her chance; she got it when Henry trotted off to the bathroom, leaving Emma at their table. She teleported to the bathroom, appearing in a puff of purple smoke behind her son as he was washing his hands. Henry turned around in shock, and before he could shout, Regina waved her hand to silence him. He glared at her silently, waiting to see what she would do._

" _Henry, Miss Swan's been lying to you," she started. The look Henry gave her indicated that he clearly didn't believe her._

" _I didn't kill Archie," Regina continued, undoing her silencing spell. "I don't know what Miss Swan's done to make everyone believe her, but she's wrong. I did not kill Archie."_

" _Then why is it so hard to believe you?" asked Henry. "Mom said you attacked her outside your house. You just used magic here. Every time you say you've changed, you go and do something that shows you haven't!"_

" _I had no choice, Henry! They used magic to try and trap me first! And how else was I going to talk to you? We both know Miss Swan wouldn't let me see you. You have to believe me, Henry. I had no choice."_

" _And there's a reason why! You try to solve every problem with magic. You keep saying that you had no choice. There is always a choice."_

 _'How I wish that were true,' thought Regina wistfully. "Henry, you know I'm not the person I was. I showed it at the well! If you would please talk to Miss-"_

" _Her name is Emma. And no, I will not talk to my mom for you. Not while I don't believe in your ability to change. So what happens now? Are you going to lock me up so you can keep me to yourself?"_

 _Regina shook her head sadly. "Henry, I'm your mother. I swear I will never try to do that to you again."_

 _Henry shrugged, heading out the door. The last thing Regina heard before the door slammed was, "You're not my mom."_

...

Every time she won a case, this would happen. This time it seemed worse. On her walk home, a red leather jacket would frequently appear in her periphery; but every time she looked, there was no insufferable blonde there. Her mind seemed to love taunting her with memories of her greatest failure.

Regina decided that it would be impossible for her to do any more work. After showering and slipping on a nightgown, she plopped down onto her bed, snuggling under the heavy blankets. She reached for the recorder and flicked it on, resuming her nightly ritual.

"I don't believe in your ability to change. You're not my mom." Flick.

"I don't believe in your ability to change. You're not my mom." Flick.

"I don't believe in your ability to change. You're not my mom." Flick.

She repeated the task until she started to doze off. She had prepared the recording as her last act before leaving Storybrooke for good. It had taken months of repeating it every night before it started not resulting in tears. Now, one year after that, her heart was hardened just enough that the thought of her son didn't send her into instant despair.

Two things happened simultaneously. There was a loud knocking on her door, and her phone rang. Regina grabbed her phone off the nightstand as she climbed out of bed, plodding towards the door. Checking the caller ID, she saw that it was Linda calling.

"Why are you calling me this late?" Regina mumbled as she crossed into the living room.

"Late? It's only eleven- that's not the point, Gina! I just overheard at the bar! Ricky Alvarez said that he was going to deal with their 'Miller' problem! It's not safe for you. You need to get to a-"

Regina's brain hadn't caught up when she reached the front door and opened it. Her phone dropped to the ground and smashed.

"Hello, _Gina_."


	2. Henry Mills

Henry's big break came when he was watching the news.

After years of complete isolation, the citizens of Storybrooke had made the collective decision to be more aware of the outside world. Rumpelstiltskin, who had grown more friendly with the presence of his son, had managed to conjure up a modern communications tower (calling it the single most complicated piece of magic he'd ever done) and so the people of Storybrooke watched the news in all their free time.

One day, the news was telling the story of Carlos Gonzalez. He was doing his homework at the time, but then he heard a voice that he hadn't heard in a long time. He looked up to see none other than a video of his mother giving a statement to reporters in front of the Boston courthouse.

"It is a terrible thing to be accused of a crime you did not commit, to be accused of a crime by those who bear you no good will and would see you fail."

The joy at the serendipity was cut short by his mother's words. Although the words were ostensibly about the Gonzalez case, there was no doubt where raw emotion audible in her words was coming from. The media was calling her a true hero, a paragon of humanity, the type of person we should all aspire to be. And the guilt hit him like it had so many times in the past years.

…

" _You're not my mom," were the last words Henry said to her before joining Emma back at the table. Henry decided not to inform Emma about his conversation, calculating that Regina wasn't going to go on a killing spree because of it. And so although the death of Archie was very fresh in his mind, he enjoyed his evening with his mother as Emma ordered pizza and told stories about her bounty hunting days._

 _It should have filled him with nothing but relief to see Archie stumble into the Diner the very next day, talking about being kidnapped by a one handed pirate and a witch who was Regina's mother. But faced with overwhelming evidence that Regina hadn't murdered Archie, his heart was filled with dread. Where had she been for the past day?_

 _The mansion was empty when he got there. One Benz worth of clothes and supplies was missing from the closet, and one Benz was missing from the garage. A trip down to Rumple's shop confirmed his fear: his mother was no longer in Storybrooke._

…

Henry was no stranger to getting to Boston on a whim. He googled the Gonzalez case, finding out that Regina (or as she called herself, Gina Miller) ran a non-profit called the Miller Foundation, which specialized in acquitting people falsely accused of crimes. Shuffling more guilt to the back of his mind, he got an address off their website and planned his trip.

He arrived in Boston in the early afternoon of the next day, his parents and grandparents none the wiser. A taxi dropped him off in front of an unassuming office building with a sign that read 'Miller Foundation'. He didn't pay any attention to the police car parked in front at first.

Chaos would be the only way to describe the scene when he walked in. Phones ringing, people dashing back and forth, papers flying all over the place. Henry walked up to the front desk, behind which a clearly stressed out woman was sitting. The placard on the desk told him that her name was Linda.

"Oh hi! I didn't see you there, young man! Are you lost?"

"No, I'm looking for my m- I'm looking for Gina Miller?"

"Oh," replied Linda, shuffling uncomfortably. "You've come at a really, really bad time. Uh, what are you here for?"

"Uh, she and my parents go way, way back. What did you mean when you said it's a really bad time?"

Linda sighed, reaching over for a remote control that had slid off her desk. She turned on a television in the corner and switched on closed captions. The television was turned to a news channel, with a bottom banner dramatically proclaiming "MILLER FOUNDATION FOUNDER MISSING, FEARED DEAD". The cameraman was clearly trying to get into what was probably Regina's apartment. Henry caught a glimpse of a completely trashed interior before the cameraman was shoved away by a policeman. The closed captioning reported that the Alvarez family was being suspected for the crime.

Henry turned to Linda in shock. "Is she..."

"We don't know," was the reply. "I tried warning her last night, but then the phone call cut out. I called the police immediately, but by the time they got there, Gina was gone, and there was a known Alvarez hitman leaving the lobby. He claims that the apartment was already trashed by the time he got there, but the police obviously don't believe him."

…

 _'I should have believed her,' was the mantra Henry would tell himself every night as he went to bed. 'Everything would be different if she were still here.'_

 _The days after Regina's departure had been quite eventful. With Cora having been revealed, the town had banded together to stop her. Eventually they used a cursed candle on Cora's heart and forced it inside her. Instead of hateful last words (as Regina's pseudo last words had been back in the Enchanted Forest), they were pleading. 'If you find Regina, please please tell her I'm so so sorry. She would have been enough. Please please tell her.'_

 _And then Emma and Rumple had come back with Neal. His father and third parent, who Emma had told him was dead. It had taken a while for Henry to warm up with him, but Neal genuinely seemed to want to be in his life. It helped that Neal had tempered Rumple's more mischievous urges._

 _Neal was followed by Tamara, his fiance. For whatever reason, she had run off with Greg Mendell, the car crash patient. Greg had always seemed odd to him; Henry got the vibe that Greg was searching all around town for somebody who wasn't there._

 _Living life among fairy tale characters was hardly as eventful as he had pictured. After the initial drama, nothing of note had happened. Small town life was as idyllic as the term implied._

 _So the only thing to distract him from his guilt was their search for his mother. Emma used all her contacts from her bail bonds days, but they found nothing._

 _Somewhere out there, Regina still believed that they thought she was guilty._

…

"Hellooooo, earth to- well you haven't told me your name, actually." Henry flinched as Linda snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Oh hey. You kinda zoned out there. You OK? Do you need to sit down?"

Henry shook his head. "No, no... I'm good. Uh, my name's Henry."

Recognition came across Linda's face. When drunkenly mumbling about her son, the name Henry would stumble from Regina's lips. That meant...

"She's more than your parents' friend, isn't she?"

Henry nodded slowly. "Does she... does she talk about me?"

"Henry... I don't know how to say this... I don't know what she was like when she was with you. But she was so reluctant to share anything about her past when I knew her. And she was so reluctant to make friends with anybody. I only recognize your name because we managed to convince her to get drinks with us. It didn't take long for us to figure out why she was so dedicated to helping falsely accused people: because the one she cared about most didn't believe her."

So there it was. For all these years, without knowing Regina's side of the story, he had clung to the selfish belief that maybe, _just maybe_ , it was Emma that was the last straw, not him. He couldn't any more.

He broke down crying.

Linda immediately embraced him in a hug, rocking back and forth. "There there," she whispered. "Everything's going to be okay," she said, knowing from experience that she was probably lying.

"Let's go sit over there, okay? Is there someone I should call to pick you up? They must be so worried about you!"

Henry gave her Emma's number, and for the hours that it took for Emma to arrive, Henry told Linda about his mom. How her real name was Regina Mills, how she spoiled him for his entire childhood. How even back then, she was secretive about her past and didn't make friends well. How he thought lowly enough of her to think she would murder her therapist (who wasn't even dead).

And Linda told Henry stories about Gina. How behind the frosty exterior, there was someone who felt passion like no one else she had ever met. About how Linda was drawn to the sheer force of will that Regina exuded, like so many of them were. How loyal Regina was to those she cared about, despite her initial reluctance to form any connections.

Linda was still sitting with Henry when Emma's signature yellow bug parked by the road. A frantic Emma sprinted out of the car, scanned the office which was much emptier, and found Henry. Thanking Linda profusely for taking care of her son, she herded Henry back to the bug.

"Henry... normally I would scold you for what you pulled, but I've gotta tell you something you probably don't want to hear. When you told us that Regina had been abducted, Rumple performed a locator spell. He called to tell me the results as I was driving down."

"Is it bad?" Henry asked nervously.

Emma nodded sadly. "Rumple told me that if she were living right now, the spell would have found her. Henry, I'm so sorry."

* * *

A/N:

So I wasn't expecting so many follows. Just for that, I decided to get this out super fast.

Updates: I don't know my update schedule. I didn't have anything to do for MLK day so I just decided to type start a story I've been thinking about for a while.

Story: This will be 4 chapters. What happened to Regina will be revealed in the 3rd chapter. This is not a story for which the MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH tag applies, to ease the worries of some of you.


	3. Emma Swan

"It's funny how time and chance works," mused Rumpelstiltskin. "One day you finally manage to track her down, and she's disappeared that very night just before you can reach her. It's quite unfortunate that the very cause of how you found her is the reason she got-"

"That's not why I'm here," interrupted Emma. "I wanted to be perfectly sure that the only possible way your spell didn't find Regina is because she's actually..."

"Can't say the words?" smirked Rumpelstiltskin. "It's okay, I'll say them. Yes, she's definitely dead. Deceased. Departed-"

"Okay, okay, okay, I get the point," grumbled Emma. "I don't get why you are being so flippant about this. Regina is _dead_. Shouldn't you feel even a little remorse?"

"I've lived for centuries and seen countless people die, Miss Swan. Death isn't the ending, it's merely starting the next portion of your journey."

"But this isn't some random person! This is someone we-"

"Someone we what, Miss Swan? Make no mistake, no matter what she was as Gina Miller, she was hated as the Evil Queen. Feared. Reviled. Two years of charity work does not come close to counting as redemption for such a person."

"And I suppose that makes your hands any cleaner?" Emma shot back. "You're the entire reason she was like that in the first place! You ruined her mother and you ruined her because you would rather ruin the lives of others than give up your own power."

"And you would just _love_ if that absolved you of all the blame, wouldn't you Miss Swan? But the truth of the matter is, all of us are to blame. It's just that I'm the only one who's okay with it. Now if we're done here, I'd like to ask that you kindly leave me to my business. Don't you have some missing people to find?"

…

" _That can't be true!" Henry yelled. "Maybe the spell didn't find her because magic doesn't work outside of Storybrooke! She might still be alive!"_

" _That's not it, Henry," Emma denied. "Rumple said the spell was able to find me while I was driving down here, which means that magic works fine past the town line."_

" _So that's it? You're not going to even try looking for her?" Henry accused. "Were you even trying at all? Her fake name was Gina Miller! That's the first fake name you would ever think of from Regina Mills! You're a bounty hunter. You should have been able find her!"_

" _How can you even think that?" Emma snapped. "Of course I've been trying. Of course I checked that name. And dozens of others! But there's thousands of Gina Millers in the United States and hundreds in New England! I couldn't just check all of them when I wasn't even sure she was using that name!"_

" _You should have tried harder!" cried Henry. "If you'd tried as hard to find her now as you tried to prove her guilty and turn me against her then, we would have gotten here before today and everything would have been fine!"_

 _Henry slapped a hand over his mouth as Emma's jaw dropped._

" _I didn't mean it like that," Henry stammered._

" _It's just that, if_ anything _had gone right, if she'd stayed one more day, if you hadn't used the dreamcatcher... everything would have been fine," sobbed Henry, collapsing into Emma's arms. Emma hugged her son tightly, rocking his shaking body back and forth as she was sure Regina had a decade ago._

" _We'll get through this together," whispered Emma, not needing her lie detector to know that she didn't think she was telling the truth._

…

It took a month of frequent visits to Archie before Henry finally began to feel cheerful about anything. In between missing people, a clone of David, and Mary Margaret's pregnancy, a general sense of gloominess had settled over their family. So when Henry laughed at one of David's bad jokes over dinner one day, it gave Emma a much needed boost of hope.

Henry wanted to participate in Emma's investigations. It was because of him that they figured out the missing people were being turned into flying monkeys. He was able to deduce that Mary Margaret's midwife was actually the Wicked Witch of the West. It was with his help that Belle was able to figure out what Zelena's plans were.

And so when Henry's spirits plummeted on the day of the baby's birth, the day before the final confrontation with Zelena would happen, the day when their hopes should have been and needed to be as high as ever, Emma needed to know why. She guided Henry into an empty hospital room and asked him directly what was wrong.

Henry wordlessly produced an audio recorder, and Emma knew immediately what was wrong. But before she could start to explain, David burst into the room. "Zelena's taken our baby!"

Emma groaned- there could not have been any worse timing. "Henry, I promise you, I will explain that," she said as she sped out the door. "I will explain everything as soon as we stop Zelena."

…

 _Linda called a week later. Despite the lack of a confession from the hitman, who was still insisting that the apartment had been wrecked before he got there, the police were declaring Regina dead by his hand. She didn't have any next of kin listed, so Linda wanted to ask if Henry would to take her stuff. It was a school day, so Emma drove down to Boston alone. When Emma arrived at Regina's apartment, Linda was waiting with Regina's stuff already packed up._

" _You didn't have to do all this," Emma remarked._

" _I felt like I had to," Linda shrugged. "Gina cared so much about people, and so this is just me honoring that."_

 _They eventually crammed all of the boxes into the bug. As they were shoving the last box into the passenger seat, a recorder fell out of the box._

" _What's this?" Emma asked, picking up the device._

" _It's a recorder," replied Linda. "We use them in the office to record audio from cases. She had it on her nightstand so I assumed that she had been working on a case that night."_

 _Emma nodded. "Alright. So I guess that takes care of everything." After some awkward standing around, Emma continued, "Thanks for everything you did for Regina. And Henry. Regina was pretty picky about her assistants, and I can see why she kept you."_

" _Like I said, just honoring Gina."_

 _Two hours later on the drive back, Emma's radio fizzed out. After fifteen minutes of monotonous driving, she glanced at the recorder in the passenger seat. Maybe whatever was on the device would give some insight into the person Regina had become._

 _The audio only lasted five seconds, but it did certainly give some insight._

" _I don't believe in your ability to change. You're not my mom."_

 _Emma's heart froze as she heard Henry's voice say the words. She didn't know how or why Regina had this, but she decided right then and there that she would never allow Henry to find the recorder._

…

"There are some rules you cannot tamper with. Magic cannot create love, it cannot reverse death, and it cannot change time. Even a sorcerer as powerful as me was never meant to control this kind of magic. We have to close it," concluded Rumpelstiltskin.

As if in defiance of Rumpelstiltskin's words, the wind around them began to speed faster, and Emma gripped the pendant holding Zelena's magic harder.

"It's not safe here!" shouted David, shielding Mary Margaret and their baby with his body. "We have to destroy the portal!"

"Dad! Do it!" agreed Neal, who was watching over an unconscious Zelena.

Emma stood there numbly. 'Reverse death... change time... reverse death... change time...'

She had promised to herself that if she ever had the opportunity to fix her mistake, then she would take that opportunity. And this was that opportunity.

"No," she said.

"What?" yelled David.

"We're not destroying the portal!"

"Magic like this could destroy the whole town!" shouted Rumpelstiltskin. "There's nothing else we can do about it!"

"Yes there is!" Emma shouted back. "I'm going to use the portal!"

" _What_? That's crazy! Emma, you don't know if the spell would work!" Mary Margaret objected.

"It doesn't matter, mom." Despite the gusts whipping at all of them, Emma's face showed a serene determination. "I'm going to save her."

Mary Margaret nodded in understanding. "You do what you have to do, Emma. You bring her back to us."

And so, thinking of the Boston courthouse three months earlier, Emma jumped into the portal.

Emma landed to see Regina finishing her speech to reporters, a speech that she had rewatched dozens of times in the past years. There, across the street, Regina was _alive_. This was her chance to save her!

She saw the gang goon hit Regina on her way out, and she saw Regina ignore him. The detectives who had worked the investigation had forwarded the cold case file to her, so she knew the exact timeline of the next few hours. Regina would be safe until Linda called her, which wouldn't happen for several hours.

Her plan was to intercept the hitman, and her only lead on where he was today was that Alvarez would be hiring him. So she followed Alvarez as he made his way to his car, then a restaurant, then a bar.

Hours later, they were still at the bar. Alvarez still hadn't made any contact with the hitman. She was running out of time. Emma nervously glanced at her watch and panic instantly flooded through her. There were only fifteen minutes until Linda's phone call to Regina was supposed to happen!

'It must have been a different Alvarez who ordered the hit,' she realized. 'Screw it. If I can't intercept him now, I'll intercept him where I know he'll be.'

And so Emma sprinted for her life (well, Regina's life) through the streets of Boston, disrupting traffic and pedestrians on her way. The apartment building finally came into view (Emma couldn't afford to check her watch to see how much time she had wasted), and Emma slipped in behind a tenant who was just returning.

Emma glimpsed a man in a trench coat through the closing elevator doors. She knew she couldn't wait for the elevator to come back down, so Emma took the stairs. 'Please don't be late, please don't be late,' ran through her head as she burst through the door leading to the seventh floor. Stopping in front of Regina's loft, she took just a moment to catch her breath before she banged on the door for dear life. 'Please don't be late, please don't be late.'

The door opened. Regina dropped her phone in shock. And Emma realized she had never once actually practiced what she would say to Regina if she ever saw her again.

They stood there in silence. Finally, Emma managed to stammer out some words.

"H-h-hello, Gina."

* * *

A/N:

So if Alvarez was _just_ discussing taking care of their Miller problem, how did a hitman get there seconds later?

It's rather ironic that, in a story about false accusations, the hitman actually gets falsely accused of his crime.

When I said in Chapter 2's A/N that I had been thinking about this story a while, I meant at the end of season 3. There's so much potential use for Zelena's time portal, and I feel like it's under-utilized in this fandom.


	4. Regina Mills

Emma Swan showing up at her door has never been a good thing. The first time it happened, Emma had shown up to take her son away from her. And the last time it happened, Emma had again shown up to take her son away from her. Since she didn't have her son any more, Regina had no guess as to what Emma had shown up to take from her this time.

Regina glared at Emma expectantly, waiting for the blonde to spit out why she had shown up in the middle of the night. There were so many ways this conversation could go, but it all hinged on what Emma was here for. Emma for her part seemed at a complete loss for words, mouth intermittently opening as if to start speaking only to close as if to decide against it. Finally, after minutes of torturous silence, Emma gestured to the smashed cell phone and asked, "That was Linda, right?"

Why, after all these years, would that be the first- "Wait, how do you know Linda? How do you know that was Linda?"

Emma shifted uncomfortably. "Well, it's a really, really, really long story, but the short version is that the hitman Linda was telling you about is going to kill you. We have to get out of here _now_."

Regina snorted. "So you mean to tell me that you knew the contents of a phone call that happened not ten minutes ago, and you know without a shred of doubt that poor, defenseless me is going to get offed by some two bit assassin?" Emma merely nodded in response.

" _Something_ is definitely happening right now, and I don't think it's what you say it is. There's no good reason for you to know who was on the phone- we both know Rumpelstiltskin's gift of foresight is not so precise, and he definitely wouldn't waste any of it looking at _my_ future. So you'll have to excuse my skepticism if I'm a tad suspicious of you. Heck, we both remember the last time you used your magic when I was involved."

"This isn't a joke, Regina! Look, I have to get you to Storybrooke for your safety. The hitman is going to be here any minute now!"

The sheer gall the blonde had at proclaiming herself a Savior combined with the complete absurdity of the situation had Regina doubling over in laughter. "After everything you have done to me, you actually think I would go anywhere with you? For all I know, your parents are just waiting for me to come over the town line so they can stick my head on a pike. Hmm, now that I think about it, you probably roped Linda into setting me up- how else would your timing be this good?"

Emma shook her head is denial. "Regina, we've known that you didn't kill Archie since the day you left! Archie told us it was your mother who framed you!"

"Oh really," Regina snarled. "And I assume by the fact that you appear very much alive means you took care of her?"

Emma nodded in confirmation. "Her last words were that you would have been enough, and that she was sorry for everything she did to you."

Regina stood numbly for a few moments, before sighing. "I suppose you had better come inside." Emma, despite clearly appearing like she was in a rush, took the offer.

…

"Look, I was devastated when I found out what happened," Emma began, glass of apple cider clutched between her fingers. "We all were. They never found a body, but magic-"

"Why do you keep talking like it's past tense?" Regina interrupted. "Last time I checked, I'm not dead yet. What haven't you told me?"

"You have to believe me when I tell you I can't explain it right now," Emma said slowly. "If you would just-"

"No," Regina countered. "I really do believe I deserve an explanation."

"There's no _time_ to explain!" Emma shouted. "If you would stop being so stubborn and just come with me, I promise I will explain _everything_ -"

"And why the hell would I go with you anywhere?" Regina shot back, matching the blonde in volume. "All you have told me is some story about how I'm going to die if I don't come with you, and even if I believed you about my life being in danger, it doesn't tell me why it has to be you I go with!"

"Because of our son!" Emma shouted even louder than before. "He misses you so much. We all see the effect it has on him. He doesn't laugh, he doesn't smile. He beats himself for accusing you of killing Archie and for not finding you quickly enough."

The mention of Henry did not have the desired effect on Regina; if anything, it only seemed to turn Regina more emotionless. Regina seemed to guess at the cause for Emma's confusion. "I saw a therapist when I was in Boston," she explained. "I told her all about my life- minus the fairytale parts, of course. I told her about my mother abused me, how my husband neglected me, how my son hated me. He told me that the clean break I just did was healthy, that it was okay to cut myself off from family if they were so toxic for my mental health."

"It was hard, very hard, for the first year," she continued. "I found a... coping mechanism, so to speak. Each time I thought about how much I missed Henry, I reminded myself of the last words he said to me- how he didn't want anything to do with me."

Emma nodded. "Hence the audio recorder."

Regina's glass abruptly shattered, and dead silence fell between the two. Emma immediately knew that she had said the wrong thing, as Regina was positively fuming in anger (and not noticing the glass embedded in her hand). " _How dare you?_ " she seethed. "How _dare_ you touch that? What kind of game is this? Did you break into my apartment already today? Did you snoop around, prepare yourself to con me by pretending to know everything about my new life?"

"Regina, I only came in after-" Emma suddenly felt a tug in her stomach, and she instinctively knew that her time in the past was about to come to an end. "Okay look, time's pretty much run out. I'm sorry for what I said, Henry's sorry for what he said, we're all sorry for accusing you, time to go."

Emma reached to grab Regina's arm, but the brunette recoiled. "No, you don't get to pull that line with me. I think that I, of all people, would know that just saying sorry does absolve you of-"

Regina dropped her jaw in shock as a portal began to form right in her living room. "Emma, what is happening?"

"That's my ride home."

A gust was starting to pick up in the living room, and loose bits of paper were beginning to flap around. The fact that magic taking place right here, outside of Storybrooke, was lending some much needed credence to Emma's story.

"Please Regina," Emma begged, holding out her hand, "Let me save you. Come back with me."

The two women locked eyes from across the room. Behind Emma's wind-tousled hair, Regina saw the earnestness in the blonde's teary eyes, and finally found it in herself to believe that Emma was here to save her. Regina gave Emma her good hand, gripped it firmly, and the two jumped into the portal, which promptly closed behind them.

…

Emma had been in the past for around nine hours; nine hours had passed in her present (Regina's future). Rumpelstiltskin had teleported Zelena to a magical cell (although such measures were not strictly necessary due to her magic being trapped in her pendant), then conjured some seats at the farmhouse. With time travel being a completely new concept even for Rumpelstiltskin, they simply had no idea when Emma would return, so they just waited.

It was nearly midnight, and the exhaustion from defeating Zelena earlier that day had taken its toll. Henry was nodding off, Belle had returned back to town for rest, and David left to put the baby in a proper bed for the night.

A flash of light erupted from the previously inert symbol on the ground, and Emma and Regina were unceremoniously ejected from a portal which quickly closed behind them. Emma, now with access to magic, healed Regina's hand, yielding a small gasp of surprise.

"Mom!"

There was the voice that had haunted Regina for years, but this time it was backed by pure enthusiasm and relief (and it was deeper). Regina was tackled by Henry, who buried his head in her shoulder and muttered, "I'm so sorry I'm so sorry..."

All the walls that Regina had attempted to place around her heart crumbled at that moment, and the love she still felt for her son burst through. "Shhhh," she whispered, "It's alright. I'm back."

"I missed you so much," Henry cried.

"I know... I missed you too..."

…

"So time travel is possible?"

Emma nodded.

"And I went missing, presumed dead, almost a year ago, which for me was yesterday?"

"Yup."

"Except the reason for my disappearance was that you traveled back in time, thinking I was murdered, and brought me into the future?"

"And you didn't believe me when I said it would be hard to explain."

Both women laughed as Ruby came over to refill their coffee. They had decided last night that everyone involved needed some rest to clear their mind, and that they should convene at Granny's the next morning.

"Soooo, about accusing you of murder..." Emma began nervously.

"Emma, I've done many things that I'm sorry for," Regina responded. "And if I ever expect all of you to be able too look past those, then I also need to be able to forgive. I acknowledge that my... grudge against Snow may have been excessive, and I can't exactly blame you for thinking I killed Archie."

Emma grinned. "Fresh start?"

Regina tilted her head in agreement and extended her hand. With fake ignorance, she asked, "So, Miss Swan, you're Henry birth mother?"

Emma chucked and shook Regina's hand. "Hi."


End file.
